As Trump pursues his political agenda, career diplomats are left with an impossible decision. “Do you try to earn the trust of these bad, corrupt people so that you can affect things in small ways? Or do you come out swinging and they will mow you down?”
flashed a series of text messages withon cable news last week, placing the former diplomat at the center of the unfolding Trump-Ukraine impeachment crisis. Volker, who resigned as special envoy to Ukraine one day after a whistleblower report was made public, was always viewed as incredibly intelligent by his fellow diplomats, but “so ridiculously ambitious that is almost didn’t matter how smart he was,” according to one former ambassador. Another former senior U.S.
Still, the depths of Volker’s involvement, and the astounding scope of the Trump administration’s pressure campaign to get Ukrainian presidentto investigate one of Trump’s top political rivals, has sent shock waves throughout the diplomatic community.
The White House argues that there was no “quid pro quo” between Trump and Zelensky, despite Trump withholding military aid from the war-torn country. But a batch of text messages released Thursday night by House Democrats, hours after Volker’s closed-door testimony on Capitol Hill, reveals that even Trump’s envoys didn’t see it that way. Indeed, the messages detail an effort by Volker, Giuliani, and U.S.
When a date for the White House visit had not yet been set two weeks later, Sondland wrote to Volker, “I think potus really wants the deliverable,” suggesting Zelensky would need to make a public statement about an investigation before Trump would commit. “To avoid misunderstandings, might be helpful to ask Andrey for a draft statement so that we can see exactly what they propose to cover,” Sondland continued.
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